Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our User Agreement and Privacy Policy.

Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. See our Privacy Policy and User Agreement for details.

Summary of the Book Made to Stick

One of my favorite book about marketing is Made to Stick from the fantastic Chip Heath and Dan Heath. This presentation is an overview of the book explaining what makes an idea or concept memorable or interesting.

Summary of the Book Made to Stick

1.
#context
Tipping point

2.
#context
Morton Grodzins
Metropolitan Segregation (1957)
The expression comes from physics where it referred to the adding a
small amount of weight to a balanced object until the additional weight
caused the object to suddenly and completely topple, or tip.
Most of the white families remained in the neighborhood as long as the
comparative number of black families remained very small. At a certain
point, when one too many black families arrived, the remaining white
families would move out en masse in a process known as white ﬂight.
He called that moment the "tipping point".

4.
#context
Connectors are the people in a community who know large numbers of
people and who are in the habit of making introductions.
Mavens are "information specialists", those who are intense gatherers of
information and impressions, and so are often the ﬁrst to pick up on new or
nascent trends.
Salesmen are "persuaders", charismatic people with powerful negotiation
skills. They tend to have an indeﬁnable trait that goes beyond what they say,
which makes others want to agree with them.
The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the
involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts
1. The Law of the Few

5.
#context
Human behavior is strongly inﬂuenced by its environment.
4:10
2. The Power of the Context

6.
#context
The speciﬁc content of a message that renders its impact memorable.
Popular children's television programs such as Sesame Street and Blue's
Clues pioneered the properties of the stickiness factor, thus enhancing
eﬀective retention of educational content as well as entertainment value.
3. The Stickiness Factors

8.
A businessman, frequent traveler was returning from a meeting
with clients, and he stopped at the airport bar. An attractive
woman approached him and oﬀered to buy him a drink. He took a
sip of his and… that's the last thing he remembered until...
#context

24.
#simple
SIMPLE=
Core + Compactthe single most important thing you want to communicate
Paradoxically, simple is in fact it’s a bit more complex

25.
#simple
SIMPLE
everything that’s critical
Core
Start cooperation and continue to do so until one of the four tests below fails.
1. First impression: A defection on the ﬁrst move is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
2. Short term: Two defections in any three turns is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
3. Medium term: Three defections out of the last twenty periods is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
4. Long term: Five defections out of the last one hundred periods is unacceptable. Revert for tit-for-tat.
The law of talion (an eye for an eye)
Compact

26.
#simple
Proverbs are short sentences
drawn from long experience
Cervantes said

27.
#simple
POMELOS
USE SCHEMAS
KNOWLEDGE
build on the existing
of your audience
How would you describe it?

28.
#simple
The pomelo (Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis), is a
citrus fruit native to South East Asia. It is usually pale
green to yellow when ripe, with sweet white ﬂesh and
very thick spongy rind. It is the largest citrus fruit,
15-25 cm in diameter, and usually weighing 1-2 kg.
Pomelos are super-sized grapefruits
vs
“

30.
two roles: “tapper” and “listener“
chose a well-known song
and tap out the rhythm on a table. guess the song
What’s the probability that the listener guess your song?
#simple

31.
The Curse of Knowledge
When a tapper taps, it is impossible for her to avoid hearing the tune playing along to
her taps. Meanwhile, all the listener can hear is a kind of bizarre Morse code.
The problem is that once we know something—say, the melody of a song—we ﬁnd it
hard to imagine not knowing it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us.
— Elizabeth Newton, 1990. Overconﬁdence in the communication of intent: Heard and unheard melodies.
unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University
#simple

39.
#unexpected
Write the lead of this newspaper story:
“Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School,
announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to
Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching
methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret
Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and
California governor Edmund ‘Pat’ Brown.“
1/3

40.
#unexpected
A good journalist gets the facts & reports them.
To get the facts, you track down the ﬁve Ws:
Who, What, Where, When, and Why.
CLUE
2/3

41.
#unexpected
Best lead: There will be no school next Thursday.
Beak schemas.
3/3

50.
#concrete
One hot summer day a Fox was strolling through an orchard. He saw a
bunch of Grapes ripening high on a grape vine. “Just the thing to quench
my thirst,“ he said. Backing up a few paces, he took a run and jumped at
the grapes, just missing. Turning around again, he ran faster and jumped
again. Still a miss. Again and again he jumped, until at last he gave up
out of exhaustion. Walking away with his nose in the air, he said “I am sure
they are sour.“ It is easy to despise what you can’t get.
— The Fox and the Grapes, Aesop.

51.
Beware: the conclusion is in the story
but the story is not in the conclusion.
#concrete
Concreteness is a terrific way to dispel the curse of knowledge!

54.
#concrete
Break vast things into small
tangible things
1B revenue
IN 5 years
2 NEW CLIENTS
PER DAY
VS

55.
#concrete
THE VELCRO THEORY OF MEMORY
It feels different to remember different kind of things.
Memory is not like a single filing cabinet. It’s more like Velcro.
Remember the capital of Kansas
Remember the ﬁrst line of “Hey Jude“
Remember the Mona Lisa
Remember the deﬁnition of truth
Rememer the deﬁnition of watermelon

63.
Experience to simulate a trial. Jurors had to assess the ﬁtness
of a mother and to decide wether her seven-year-old son
should remain in her care.
The transcript was constructed to be closely balanced.
There were 8 arguments against and 8 arguments for.
All the jurors heard the same arguments. The only diﬀerence
was the level of details. Eg: “Mrs Johnson sees to it that her
child washes and brushes his teeth before bedtime“ VS “He
uses a Star Wars toothbrush that looks like Darth Vader“.
A suitable parent?
Verdict: 5.8/10 (vivid details) vs 4.3/10 (normal details)
—> 35% increase!!

64.
#credible
The Sinatra Test
If you can make it in NYC, you can make it anywhere
If you’ve done encryption for the NSA, you can do it anywhere.
when one example alone is enough
to establish credibility in a given domain.